MLB teams
Jim Caple, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Giants still confident in their bullpen

San Francisco Giants, Kansas City Royals

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Kansas City Royals have a bullpen so set that the moves could almost be stage directions in a script.

SEVENTH INNING: The bullpen door swings open and Kelvin Herrera enters throwing his 100 mph heat. Cue strikeouts.

EIGHTH INNING: The bullpen door swings open and Wade Davis enters throwing his mid-90s four-seamer and his cutter. Cue strikeouts.

NINTH INNING: The bullpen door swings open and Greg Holland enters throwing his mid-90s four-seamer and his slider. Cue strikeouts and the end of the game.

The San Francisco Giants' bullpen is different. For one thing, there are no bullpen doors to swing open at the Giants' home ballpark. For another, they play in the National League where inning-to-inning situations aren't as easily set.

"They have a lot of power arms and we finesse stuff," San Francisco left-hander Jeremy Affeldt said. "Their seventh-inning guy came in in the sixth Wednesday and threw 100 miles an hour and did an awesome job. They have young, good arms. But there are always different situations.

"They're an American League club. We're a National League club. We've got double switches we have to make. You can't necessarily have a set seventh-, eighth- [and] ninth-inning guy because of the way we double switch. They don't have that situation, but they're going to have it now here for three games so we'll see. [Giants manager] Bruce Bochy has never been one to guarantee you that situation."

Bochy said the Giants try to match up situations more with their bullpen. "We'll use guys in a little different role," he said. "I may bring one guy in a little bit earlier than I would normally, whether it's Affeldt, even Javier Lopez, and they know that and it's worked for us."

It just didn't work well in Game 2, when Bochy used four relievers in the sixth inning and watched a 2-2 tie quickly turn into a 7-2 blowout loss.

"With our pen, I know they've had a couple of hiccups," Bochy said. "That was a tough game for them [Wednesday] night, but these guys are the reason we're here. You're still going to need them, because you can't push your starter past where you think he should be at.

"Ideally, your starter does get you deep and helps you out there. But at the same time, I don't want to put any added pressure on him. We think we're going to be fine. It didn't go well [Wednesday] night, but that hasn't happened very often. So we try to stay positive here, and I want those guys that were in there to stay positive, too, Jean Machi and Hunter Strickland, because they may be needed."

Machi took over for Jake Peavy with two on and nobody out in the sixth inning in Game 2 on Wednesday, fell behind Billy Butler and gave up a run-scoring single. Much worse, after Lopez retired one batter, Strickland followed by allowing a two-run double and a two-run home run, the fifth homer he's given up this postseason. He also caused an ugly scene -- and definitely not one in the manager's script -- on the national stage by mouthing off to Royals catcher Salvador Perez.

Strickland was doing his best to move on and learn from the experience. "I'm embarrassed by it," Strickland said Thursday. "I was in the moment and I took it too far and my emotions got to me. There are no hard feelings toward anybody. It's just what happened and I'm not going to deny it. I'm going to own up to it."

Asked how his use of Strickland might change, Bochy replied, "He's part of this club, and he's part of this bullpen. So we have to have all of these guys ready and we may need them. I don't know how the game's going to go."

The Giants also are awaiting word on how Tim Lincecum's back feels. He left with soreness in his back during his first appearance of the postseason Wednesday and underwent an MRI Thursday. Bochy expressed confidence that Lincecum would be available for the rest of the series.

Affeldt, meanwhile, expressed confidence that the bullpen will bounce back from Wednesday's meltdown, just as good bullpens usually do.

"All the relievers understand that we're going to fail," he said. "We don't like giving up homers, we don't like giving up runs, we don't like giving up hits, we don't like to walk people. We fail every time we do that. We know we have to make good pitches. But as a reliever we also have to understand that the sun comes up the next day and that I can make that same pitch and that [bad] thing does not happen. The best thing for us is to focus on throwing quality pitches in the strike zone.

"We don't like failure any more than anyone else does. We just know that we have an opportunity to come out the next day and get the job done."

^ Back to Top ^